[Dakar, 11 June 2021] CV Sow, Head of the Operations Division of the Senegalese Navy brought the YARIS (Yaoundé Architecture Regional Information System) advanced training to an end, in the presence of the representative of the European Delegation to Senegal, Ilaria Mussetti. This 15 day training was co-organised by the GoGIN project financed by the European Union and the Senegalese Navy’s Maritime Operations Centre (MOC).
From 31 May to 11 June, 25 officers and operators were able to benefit from the YARIS advanced training delivered by a mixed team made up of three trainers (GoGIN, ARSTM et CRESMAC). Course participants worked in a range of services and administrations involved in the maritime domain – MOC of the Senegalese Navy, HASSMAR, National Agency of Maritime Affairs (ANAM), Fisheries Surveillance Directorate (DPSP), and COSAMA (Senegalese consortium of maritime activities); this inter-administration composition fostered rich exchanges between participants.
The aim of this in-person training is to allow centre staff to use YARIS in an operational context. In the case of centres in Senegal, it was a case of both introducing the suite of system functionalities whilst also accompanying centres to integrate this tool in their own operational procedures. Participants were set up to work on fictitious scenarios and collaborated on a synthesis exercise on illegal fishing to assimilate YARIS and measure its value as a decision making tool.
Throughout the practical exercises, three trainers used YARIS as a decision making tool inspired by military planning methods.
The Head of MOC, Lieutenant (N) Aziz Diouf, observed that:
“This system will contribute substantially to embed the operational network articulate around the Yaoundé Architecture, accelerating the collection process, processing, and information-sharing of maritime data. YARIS training has been of a very high quality. We came out of these two weeks of training equipped for an effective implementation of the YARIS information sharing system.”
In the coming months, the individual support offering will continue to unfold (Sao Tome et Principe, Gambia, Togo, Nigeria etc) with the support of mixed teams of trainers (GoGIN and YA centres).